Election to the 60-member Nagaland assembly began today

Polling began in Nagaland at 7am today amid tight security as more than half of 2,156 polling stations have already been declared critical.

Neiphiu Rio – the Nationalist Democratic People’s party (NDPP) chief is leading the leading, polling is being held in 59 seats.

Polling in Nagaland will continue till 4 pm, except in some interior districts where it will end at 3pm. There are more than 281 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), apart from state police force have been deployed across Nagaland to ensure peaceful polling.

According to Nagaland Chief Electoral Officer Abhijit Sinha, the 2,156 polling stations in Nagaland, 1,100 are critical, 530 vulnerable and 526 are normal.

All polling stations would be manned by the CAPF personnel and the state police would also be assisting them- he further stated.

There are 11,76,432 voters , comprising of 5,97,281 male, 5,79,151 female and 5884 service voters who will decide the fate of 195 candidates. There are no third gender voters in the state while the first time voters between the age group 18-19 years are 26,900- Awa Lorin, Assistant Chief Electoral Officer said.

The results of the polls in Nagaland will be declared along with those of Tripura and Meghalaya on March 3.